


There's Something About MJ

by HMSLusitania



Category: Captain Marvel (2019), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: BAMF Michelle Jones, Carol and Maria are co-moms okay, F/F, F/M, Getting Together, MJ is hiding something and Peter is determined to find out what, Not Far From Home Compliant, Not Infinity War or Endgame Compliant, Secret Identities: Not just for Spider-Man Anymore!, Will he get more than he bargained for? yes, liberties taken with Skrull and Kree technology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:14:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25294522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HMSLusitania/pseuds/HMSLusitania
Summary: Michelle Jones is hiding something. Peter is determined to find out what it is.Petermighthave bitten off more than he can chew.
Relationships: Carol Danvers/Maria Rambeau, Michelle Jones/Peter Parker, Monica Rambeau/Talos's Daughter (Marvel)
Comments: 39
Kudos: 135





	There's Something About MJ

**Author's Note:**

> I pitched this to my friends as a crackfic and was informed that it was not. 
> 
> Liberties have been taken with MCU canon, Comics canon, and the boundaries of Skrull and Kree technology (although I stand by that one because what do we know, really). I mean, who's to say the Skrulls _don't_ have the technology to make a child from two (cis)women who is genetically both of theirs? 
> 
> Rated T for profanity.
> 
> Side note: I named Talos's daughter Fiona.  
> Side Side Note: It isn't my fault Monica told her that her purple eyes were pretty and she should never change them.

Peter has never considered how MJ would respond to a punch in the face.

In the heartbeat between Flash hitting her in the face with the stupid briefcase he carries instead of a backpack (Peter takes a second to reflect on how often he would lose a  _ briefcase _ , god, he has  _ enough _ trouble with a backpack and those have multiple straps), Peter considers the ways MJ would most likely react to this situation. The scenarios that win in his head are one) she’ll just flip Flash off and punch him in the shoulder and go about her day, or two) produce a tampon from her backpack and stick it in her nose for the rest of practice just to fuck with everyone.

The heartbeat passes and MJ does…neither of these things. Instead, she goes pale, almost ashen, and covers her lower face in both hands like she’s about to puke. And then she sprints from the commons and out into the hallway towards one of the bathrooms.

“Oh my  _ god,  _ Flash, you’re the  _ worst _ ,” Cindy complains, throwing a balled-up piece of paper at Flash’s head.

“Yeah, Flash, you should go apologise!” Betty tells him.

“I—”

Before Flash can stage a proper protest against this – it really was an accident, and as much as Peter dislikes Flash, he has to admit that much – Harrington pipes up.

“Parker! You get – you know how to deal with bloody noses. Go check on her,” he instructs.

Peter wonders what Aunt May would say if she knew his teacher had been about to point out that Peter turns up to a lot of team meetings looking beat up. He wonders what Mr Stark would say. Both of them would probably worry about him being Spider-Man and both of them would worry that Mr Harrington somehow thought Peter’s home life was shitty. It wasn’t, of course. Weird, for sure, weird in spades, but not shitty.

Either way, Peter  _ does  _ know a lot about bloody noses, so he does as Mr Harrington instructs and follows MJ into the hallway. The hall is deserted.

He pokes his head into the women’s restroom, only comfortable doing so because it’s after hours and the sports teams that are still present have their own bathrooms down in the gym.

“MJ?” he calls.

There’s no answer, so he retreats. He looks around the hallway and spots the unisex bathroom halfway to the art room. He’s used it himself a fair few times when various injuries from patrol catch up with him and he needs to be somewhere private so no one knows he’s bleeding.

He approaches the door. Some art kid has smeared blue paint all over the handle but its smudged with a recent handprint. He knocks.

“MJ?”

“Go away, Parker,” she says. “I’m fine.”

“I – okay, I just – I get a lot of nosebleeds, and Flash hit you in the face pretty hard. Do you need any help?”

“I’m fine,” she repeats, her voice sharper than usual. More bite. Peter is reminded for reasons he can’t quantify of dogs snarling when threatened.

“Okay? Do you want me to get one of the girls? Betty or Cindy or—”

“No,” MJ says, and its very final. Peter chews on the inside of his lip for a second. “Go away, Parker.”

“O-okay,” he says, giving up. She doesn’t want his help and so he decides to take her at her word. It’s what May would tell him to do.

It takes MJ at least fifteen minutes to return to the commons for the rest of practice, and when she does, Peter notices a little of the blue paint from the bathroom door is still on her cheek. She avoids him for the rest of decathlon practice and its only when they’re leaving that he manages to point it out.

“You got paint on your face,” he says, pointing at it.

MJ rubs a hand absently across her cheek, but she looks pale again. She also misses the spot.

“No, it’s – here, let me,” he says, and before he really registers what he’s doing, he runs his thumb across the swell of her cheekbone and takes the smudge of blue paint with him. MJ stares at him and just keeps  _ staring at him _ , her nostrils slightly flared, trying to get as much air as possible with each breath, and Peter doesn’t know why.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he says, deciding it’s best to just leave. He waits until he’s out of sight of the school before changing into his costume and webbing home. He’s halfway there when he realises what MJ’s expression was.

Fear.

MJ is afraid of something, but what?

* * *

MJ has a black eye when she shows up for school the next day. Peter’s been punched in the nose enough times by shoplifters and burglars and robbers to know that it’s most likely just the residual of Flash hitting her in the face with his briefcase, but half their classes lose time with people badgering her about it, and the other half are worse, because in those, there’s just whispers and speculations.

“Does it hurt?” Peter asks at lunch because MJ has actually deigned to sit at their table rather than casually adjacent to them like a stray cat that refuses to acknowledge its emotional connection to these strange humans beside it.

“No, it just looks bad,” MJ says, turning a page in her book. Peter tries to see what it is, but its not in English and it’s also not in a language he can read.

“Do you want us to get Flash beat up for you?” Ned offers. “Peter knows Spider-Man.”

Peter glares at him. “Spider-Man’s not going to go beat up Flash.”

“It was an accident,” MJ says, but she doesn’t actually look up from her book. “I don’t think anyone would respect Spider-Man if he beat people up for accidents.”

Peter’s pretty sure she’s not actually looking at him out of the corner of her eye when she says it, but there’s something in the way her eyebrow twitches that makes him nervous.

Most things about Michelle Jones make him nervous.

He doesn’t mean to channel this nervousness into stalking, it just sort of happens. It’s Friday, and Peter’s planning on spending a long weekend on patrol, and it’s only by coincidence that his patrol takes him close to MJ’s apartment. He also doesn’t mean to keep thinking about the way her cheek felt under his thumb when he brushed the paint away, or the fact the paint was oddly viscous when he washed it off later. But he is worried about the way MJ looked scared after school on Thursday, and then there’s the problem of what if the black eye wasn’t just from Flash? Peter doesn’t know a single thing about MJ’s home life, except where she lives, and so he promises himself it’s just to…check.

The fire escape goes to the Jones family’s living room, and with the darkness outside and the brightness within, Peter is invisible, crouching there. It’s a Friday night and MJ is curled up on the couch reading, the only difference between this and her usual at school being that there’s a luscious, self-satisfied ginger cat sprawled in her lap. In the kitchen, he can just make out two women who look like they’re probably in their early thirties. Neither of them is old enough to be MJ’s mom, unless she’s in a fostering situation. But one of them looks so similar to her that he would find it difficult to believe they weren’t related by blood – maybe an older sister? He zooms in on the lenses of his suit and tries to nab a biometric read of her, but Karen comes up with nothing.

That’s never happened before, not since Mr Stark updated his suit’s software so he could use it to ID criminals in case they got away. But nothing comes up about the woman in MJ’s apartment.

Curious, he refocuses on MJ. Again, nothing.

As a last-ditch effort, he focuses on the third woman. He’s expecting it this time when nothing comes up. What he isn’t expecting is for her to suddenly look at the window where he’s hiding, and narrow her eyes at him like she can almost see him. He backs away slowly as she advances on the window, and just before she gets to him and just before he flips off the fire escape and disappears into the night, he notices.

The third woman in MJ’s apartment has purple eyes.

* * *

Peter does the only sensible thing he can when he gets home. He brings Ned in on it.

“There’s something weird going on with MJ,” is all he says, and Ned is at his apartment so fast that if Peter didn’t know any better, he’d guess Ned teleported.

“What kind of weird?” Ned asks. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers type weird?”

“Not – not quite?” Peter says, because really, he has no evidence that something specific has happened to Michelle Jones as they know her.

It’s the “as they know her” bit that gives him a hang up.

He explains everything he’s observed to Ned, but all Ned does is give him a knowing smile.

“You  _ like _ her,” he says, grinning like a proud father.

“I do n – look, that’s not the point!” Peter insists, because, really, there’s no point in denying it flat out. “Do you know  _ anything _ about MJ’s personal life?”

“She likes Thai food and angry girl music of the indie rock persuasion?” Ned offers.

“Anything that wouldn’t be on, like, a tinder profile,” Peter corrects.

Ned thinks. “I think she only moved to New York right before high school?”

“Do we know from where?” Peter asks.

Ned considers. All at once, he lights up. “Yeah, actually! When we were in Washington for decathlon and you were too busy mooning over Liz—” Peter glowers at him “—she told Mr Harrington she could get to the embassies she wanted to protest in front of just fine since she used to live there and knew how the metro worked.”

Peter nods slowly. “So MJ moved to New York from Washington just before we started high school.”

Current events are sort of insane, and the only reason Peter can really keep up with them is because he’s got Karen and the Avengers to fill him in. But he remembers 2014 with alarming clarity. Mr Stark had told him later that the Project Insight files were half of the reason he was able to find Peter.

Peter grabs the mask and pulls it on, activating Karen with a few taps.

“Karen, does your people database still work?” he asks.

“Of course, Peter,” she says, sounding a little hurt he’d even ask.

Peter looks over at Ned and Karen’s HUD obligingly brings up Ned’s passport information and driver’s permit.

“Does your database have people in witness protection?” Peter asks.

Ned’s eyebrows raise comically.

“It has their cover identities,” she says.

“So what would it take for someone to not be in your database?” Peter asks.

“They would have to not exist, or be wiped from every known database,” Karen says. “Which would be very difficult.”

Peter thanks her and drops the mask back on his bed. He has proof MJ exists. Which means she somehow is being constantly erased from databases, and the only people Peter knows who would go to such lengths are SHIELD.

* * *

By Monday, MJ’s black eye has faded to almost nothing. There’s just a hint of yellow and green left beneath her eye socket and even though it looks a little tender, she’s back to her normal self. Whatever she was afraid of apparently has not come to pass.

And then they’re sitting in social studies, and their well-meaning but incredibly clueless and tone-deaf teacher is telling them all about their new project.

“Family histories!” he says. “We’re all going to do a little presentation about where our families are from and the culture there!”

Every kid in the class stares at him, blank.

“Like, uh, Peter! Where’s your family from?” he asks.

“Queens?” Peter says.

“But before that!” their teacher insists.

“Queens,” Peter says.

“But  _ before _ they came to America,” their teacher says, bright-eyed. He’s probably well meaning, but every kid in the room has just inhaled sharply.

“Yeah, um, what are we supposed to do if we’re space aliens?” MJ asks, quickly drawing all attention to herself. Peter assumes that was her point.

Their teacher frowns at her. “If you aren’t going to take this seriously—”

“I am not,” MJ agrees.

The class is distractible for the rest of the period and MJ does not sit with them at lunch. They don’t really see her again outside of practice until Friday when they’re supposed to be doing their presentations. Peter has cobbled something together about Italy because May didn’t know what to tell him about Ben and his dad’s side of the family, but MJ has committed to her protest. She’s done landscape paintings and artwork.

She’s pretending towards seriousness as she stands up in front of the class and points at the first landscape she’s done. It’s of a futuristic city that Peter wouldn’t have been surprised to find she’d copied from a Star Wars movie.

“This is Hala, this is where my mom is from,” MJ says, giving the class a dead eyed stare. There are a few laughs. “It was the capital of the Kree Empire for a really long time.” She switches slides to an idyllic and frankly just kind of  _ weird _ landscape. “And this is Satriani, which is where  _ I  _ was born, and technically it’s part of the Skrull Empire now, and my mom was there because Empress S’Byll owes her a—”

“Okay, Miss Jones, you’ve made your point and you can continue to make it in detention,” their teacher interrupts, handing MJ the detention slip. MJ takes it without comment and sits back down in her desk.

It all has to be from some sort of old school sci-fi book, but Peter can’t remember MJ ever reading one of those where he could see her. Maybe she hides them inside the giant volumes she’s always toting around so that people don’t make fun of her? But MJ is not the sort of person who cares if people make fun of them.

* * *

When Peter goes on patrol that night, he finds himself with a bit of downtime, perched on the edge of a roof.

“Hey Karen,” he says. “What book is Hala from?”

Karen whirs a second and then a few images remarkably like the ones MJ had drawn for the class show up on his HUD.

“Hala was the capital of the Kree Empire,” Karen says, “Until Kree Standard Year 2168, or Earth year 2007.”

“Right, sure, but what book is it from?” Peter asks.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand the question,” Karen says.

“It’s from a book, some kind of old sci-fi book,” Peter insists. “Hala and the Kree and the Skrulls and Satriani and Empress S’Byll.”

“The Skrulls are a race of shapeshifting intergalactic beings and one of the few recorded silicon-based life forms who have lived successfully in the Milky Way galaxy,” Karen says.

“Yeah, cool, but what’s it—”

Peter yelps when the first image pops up in the HUD. The Skrulls are green and look sort of reptilian, like something out of a movie set. Their eyes are bright, amethyst purple.

“The first known contact of Skrulls on Earth was in 1995 in the greater Los Angeles area,” Karen says. “Files were declassified during the Project Insight leak in 2014 and reclassified shortly thereafter.”

Peter blinks away the images of the Skrulls. “Wait, what do you mean declassified?”

Karen starts to tell him the definition of “declassification” but Peter cuts her off. He feels bad about it and apologises immediately, but he can’t feel bad for too long because there’s a very important aspect of this he needs to address.

“Karen, are you telling me that none of this is from a novel?” he asks. “That the Skrull and the Kree and Hala are real?”

“As far as my databases know,” Karen says.

Peter drops to the edge of the roof with a thump. “Holy shit,” he breathes. What if, as she was joking around, MJ was actually telling the truth?

* * *

As it happens, Peter doesn’t actually have time to dwell on this potential idea. Saturday finds him inundated with homework, and Sunday he’s got a string of robberies at bodegas all perpetrated by the same dude, who he chases halfway across Queens before finally pinning him on a rooftop well after dark. The guy fights back, all the cash he’s taken from the bodega ATMs bursting out of his pockets like Mardi Gras confetti, and so it’s not until after Peter’s wrestled him to the ground, webbed his wrists and ankles together and finally shot some webbing over his mouth to make him _stop._ _talking._ that he realises he’s not alone on the roof with the perp.

Peter does a double take, looking from the girls and their picnic blanket to the surrounding buildings. He hadn’t even realised he was on MJ’s street, much less her rooftop, but there she is wrapped in a comfortable sweater against the chill in the air and holding a plate with pie on it. One of the women Peter had seen in her apartment is sitting next to her, a telescope between them.

“Shit, you weren’t kidding,” the one who isn’t MJ says. “Spider-Man really does just drop by?”

“Friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man,” Peter says, dragging the robber towards the fire escape. He’ll go web him up back at the last bodega for the cops. The thing is – MJ says it too.

“All we get in Manhattan is, like, Iron Man, going for a run,” MJ’s…sister? says. “At least back in Washington we got Captain America sprinting around the Mall half naked.”

MJ gives her a weirded-out look. “You’re a lesbian.”

“It’s the aesthetic, Michelle,” her sister says, and Peter can’t help it when he laughs a little.

“Have a good evening, ladies,” he says, and tries to drag the robber off the roof, but MJ calls after him.

“Hey P-iderman, do you want some pie?”

Peter’s stomach does a flip. He can’t be sure if she’s making a joke about offering pie to someone with that sound in their name or if she’d dropped the S from the front because she was going to call him…something else.

“My girlfriend made it, so it’s actually edible,” MJ’s sister offers.

Peter desperately wants pie, but he’s also not sure he can justify sitting on a rooftop and eating it just yet.

“I’m going to go return the money this guy stole,” Peter says. “And give him a nice lecture about his life choices.” 

It takes him longer than it should’ve and by the time he finishes, it’s late and it’s a school night and Peter unwillingly heads home instead of returning to MJ’s. The only small upside is that MJ doesn’t know he’s Spider-Man and therefore can’t hold it against him.

* * *

“Dude, I think MJ knows,” Peter hisses to Ned after dragging him out of the commons during lunch and barricading them in the shop.

“Knows that you’re stalking her?” Ned asks, instant.

“I’m not stalking her!” Peter protests. He isn’t. Really, truly.

Ned considers. Then his face brightens and he nods knowingly. “Knows that you  _ like  _ her.”

“No! Ned! I think she knows I’m Spider-Man!”

Ned’s eyes go wide. “Oh shit.”

“Yeah!”

“Why do you think she knows?”

“Because she invited Spider-Man to come back for a slice of pie and I didn’t and now she’s giving Peter the cold shoulder,” Peter explains. It’s become a very unusual occurrence for MJ to not talk to him all day, and actually Peter doesn’t remember the last time that happened, but it was definitely prior to sophomore year’s disastrous homecoming dance. And that was over a year ago.

They have talked, he finally realises, every day for a year.

MJ, he finally,  _ finally  _ realises is hands down one of his best friends.

Maybe…maybe he should just tell her he’s Spider-Man. Ned knows, May knows, and MJ is the one person he’s super close to who doesn’t officially know and suddenly that feels really weird.

MJ might also be a space alien who is being constantly deleted from every government database, which for some reason feels less weird than the fact he hasn’t told her he’s Spider-Man.

“I’m gonna tell her,” he decides aloud, after he realises Ned’s been staring at him the entire time he’s been having this train of thought.

“That you like her?” Ned asks, eyes bright.

“Please just ask Betty out,” Peter requests. “I’m begging you. Just like. Please.”

Ned heaves a sigh and nods. “Maybe I’ll ask her to homecoming.”

Peter nods, hoping that with this decided, he can get an opinion on whether or not he should tell MJ.

“So how are you going to tell MJ? Because you’ve got to be strategic about it,” Ned says, and they spend the rest of the lunch period coming up with ideas.

None of them come to fruition, however, because Peter doesn’t encounter MJ for the rest of the day except when they’re at decathlon practice and there’s no way he can ask for a minute alone with their captain without the entire team getting ideas. And then when practice is over, MJ vanishes from the school grounds before he can even start to say anything to her.

Ned gives him a supportive thumbs up and Peter groans before heading to an alley and changing. He sees the smoke the moment he clears the roof and realises MJ is going to have to wait. The firefighters might need help, and the smoke is black so it looks like it’s an apartment fire. It’s probably the same cause as the last fire they had like this – a piece of Chitauri tech from 2012 fell into one of the pre-war building’s ducts and over time, the combined use of microwaves from the residents activated it and then, poof. No more building.

He reaches it at the same time as the firefighters and nearly falls off the wall in shock. It’s not just a random pre-war building. It’s MJ’s.

His heart’s going to beat out of his chest while he scans the assembled residents of the building. He sees MJ’s sister, her sister’s girlfriend with the stunning purple eyes, but no MJ. He drops next to them.

“Where’s MJ?” he asks.

“We just got home!” her sister says, eyes as wide and horrified as Peter’s are beneath the mask. “I don’t know if she’s – oh my god, Goose.”

The cat, Peter guesses.

The structure is coming down quickly and if MJ is still inside, there is not much time. The firefighters are working on suppression only, keeping it from spreading. The Jones sisters’ building is a goner.

Peter barely pauses to tell the fire marshal he’s going to do a last sweep for anyone living before the building collapses, and then he’s inside. It’s loud. It’s so much louder than he has ever expected a structure fire to be, so loud it hurts his ears. And it’s impossible to see. Everything is orange and yellow except for the black smoke that is  _ everywhere _ .

“Karen! I need you to scan for anything living!” he requests, dodging a burning beam and going through what used to be someone’s kitchen.

“Scanning for life forms,” Karen tells him, the optics sweeping the building. “Sixth floor, quadrupedal.”

“A cat?” Peter asks, taking advantage of the masonry that’s still in the stairwell to scale up towards MJ’s apartment. “What about a human? What about MJ?”

“There is a human body on the seventh floor,” Karen says, her voice so quiet in Peter’s ear he can barely hear her over the fire.

Peter’s going to puke in his suit.

Part of the sixth floor is still stable enough he can locate the small quadruped. It is almost certainly MJ’s ginger cat, Goose, except Peter is instantly aware Goose is not a cat. Goose is terrified and backed into a corner on top of the fridge, tentacles lashing out of its mouth at the flames trying to consume it. It hisses when it sees Peter and he holds his hands up, trying not to think about the body on the seventh floor.

“It’s okay!” he tells Goose the – whatever the fuck Goose is. “I’m a friend. I’m trying to get you out, okay?”

Goose seems to understand him because it retracts the tentacles and turns into a standard issue marmalade tabby. Peter’s seen some things in his life, so has everyone who’s grown up in New York, but Goose currently wins the award for weirdest. He manages to get close enough that Goose can jump into his arms and Peter wraps a secure hand around it. The floor is rapidly disappearing below him and Peter sprints for the seventh floor. They’ll have to go out through the roof anyway, because there’s no other way back down. The fire had started near the bottom of the building.

Karen directs him towards the body on the seventh floor and Peter doesn’t want to sigh in relief because it’s tragic and sad, but the elderly man who’s dead in his armchair is not MJ. He didn’t even die in the fire. It looks like he died of a heart attack in the recent past and hasn’t been found until now.

MJ isn’t here. She wasn’t in the building.

Peter’s relief is like a drug. He takes a second to wonder how the logistics are going to work, getting the old man out of the building while carrying Goose, but physics makes the decision for him. The only warning he has is Goose’s lowing in his ear and then the floor falls out from under him.

He has half a split second to think, “This is how I’m going to die” and then he stops falling. He manages to keep a hold on Goose, which is for the best since it’s Goose’s tentacles clinging to the roof of the adjacent building that have kept both of them from falling into the inferno below. As soon as he realises what’s happening, Peter webs himself over, steering Goose along with him. The cat-thing retracts its tentacles as soon as they’re on the roof of the un-burnt building and meows, rubbing itself against Peter’s calves. Peter picks Goose up and webs back down to the ground, out of range of the fire fighters who are spraying down the buildings on either side of where MJ’s used to be with containment foam.

“Goose!”

The shout comes from farther down the street where all the building’s residents are huddled up in groups. MJ and her sister are pelting towards him. Goose flings itself out of Peter’s arms and into MJ’s sister’s, meowing up a storm. MJ, however, grabs  _ him. _

“Thank you,” she says, squeezing him tightly. MJ has never touched him before, Peter is suddenly distinctly aware. MJ is…disconcertingly strong. She’s probably not as strong as he is, but she’s definitely stronger than a normal human person should be and he’s pretty sure that if he wasn’t superhuman, she’d have broken one of his ribs. “Never do that again, but thank you.”

“Just, um, standard Spider-Man stuff,” he mumbles because he can smell her hair over the ash and smoke that’s coating his entire suit and it’s spicy and earthy and just the faintest bit sweet like vanilla.

“Hey Spider-Man!”

MJ lets go of him enough that they can turn and see an EMT standing next to an ambulance. He’s got his arms folded and is giving Peter a no-nonsense look.

“Do your lungs magically remove smoke?” the EMT asks.

“Um—” is all he gets out before he’s being frog marched to the ambulance and sat on the tailgate so that the EMT can give him oxygen. Thankfully, the EMT doesn’t make him take his mask all the way off, just roll it up and put the mask on. Whatever fabric Mr Stark had made the suit out of, it stretches to cover the oxygen mask when he rolls it back down.

The downside is he can’t talk. When MJ, her sister, Goose, and her sister’s girlfriend come to stand by him and discuss their course of action moving forward, he cannot contribute anything to the conversation.

“No, you have to come to Manhattan with us and go to emergency counselling,” MJ’s sister says, putting her hands on her hips. MJ has taken Goose into her arms by this point.

“Why?” MJ asks. “We put everything sentimental in that cloud system Fiona’s dad loaned us, and everything else is just stuff.”

“Michelle, it was home,” her sister insists.

“Monica,” the girlfriend – Fiona? – says, trying to soothe.

“The first house we lived in when I was born got blown up by Accusers,” MJ says and Peter has absolutely no idea what she’s talking about. “At least this was just a fire rather than people trying to kill us. Besides, I have to go to school tomorrow.”

“I think the school will understand,” Monica says, looking ready to tear her hair out. “And honestly, you’re probably going to have to transfer to one closer to us since we don’t know when Mom’s going to be back and—”

“I’ll stay with Peter,” MJ says. She doesn’t actually look at him while she says it, but he can still see the challenging flick of her eyebrow. “His aunt likes me.”

“I haven’t even  _ met _ Peter,” Monica snaps.

Again, MJ doesn’t glance in his direction, but it feels much more pointed this time.

“You’d like him. He’s a nerd,” she says. Peter isn’t sure what to do with that particular assessment of his character. He wants to take the oxygen mask off and interject, but…but there’s no way to do that without outing himself. “But here, if it makes you feel better.”

She pulls out her cell phone and dials a number. After a second, Peter hears – of all things – May’s voice on the other end of the phone. MJ gives her a quick rundown of the situation and then hands the phone to Monica. He can hear May say something about not wanting to take MJ away from family so soon after such a tragedy but they would of course be happy to have her if Monica and MJ agree that’s best.

“Fine,” Monica says, handing the phone back to MJ once she’s hung up. “Fine. But I have to stay here and talk to the fire marshal and try to explain why the tenants on the lease weren’t present during the fire, so I’ll take you over there when this is done.”

“Spider-Man can walk me,” MJ says, shifting her grip on Goose so that the cat-thing is cuddled up closer to her chest. Peter’s not quite sure that’s safe, but he has no proof Goose is malevolent.

Monica looks ready to fight, but Fiona puts a hand on her arm and kisses her on the cheek and all of the fight goes out of her.

“Okay,” she says. She looks over MJ’s shoulder towards Peter. “Does that work for you, Spider-Man?”

There are several levels of “no this does not work for me” going through Peter’s head, but all he can do is nod. He relinquishes the oxygen mask to the EMT and waits as both Fiona and Monica hug MJ tightly and plant kisses on her cheeks. Peter doesn’t know what the exact age difference is between MJ and Monica but it’s significant enough he imagines there’s been something closer to a mother-daughter relationship in their past than sisters.

MJ is quiet the entire walk to Peter’s apartment. Peter makes a few hastily aborted attempts at conversation but she doesn’t respond to any of them. Whatever glibness she threw at Monica about not caring about their apartment burning down seems to have been surface level at best. Away from the scene, the bravado holding her up fades and then disappears entirely.

“Do you want me to carry Goose?” He wants to offer to carry her, but he doubts she’ll accept even in this state.

“She doesn’t really like people that much,” MJ says. “Aside from my family. Apparently, Fiona’s dad is terrified of her, and that’s apparently common sense.”

“He doesn’t come visit?” Peter asks. “You don’t see this in person?”

“Sometimes,” MJ says. “But it’s been years. They live pretty far away.”

“Australia?” Peter suggests, because Fiona had almost sounded Australian. He really,  _ really  _ doubts Fiona is Australian.

MJ snorts. “Yeah,” she says. “Australia.”

They’ve arrived at Peter’s apartment building and MJ heads for the door. Peter doesn’t know if it’s plausible deniability that makes him step back and refuse to go that way or force of habit – Spider-Man does not walk through the front door of the Parker apartment, after all, he goes through the window. MJ lets him get away with scaling the wall instead the moment May buzzes her into the building.

Peter sprints up the wall, dives through his bedroom window, strips out of his suit and stuffs it under his bed, and is in the shower with his least embarrassing pyjamas sitting on the counter by the time MJ knocks on the door. Over the water, he can hear May start being loudly comforting to MJ, offering her tea, offering to help feed Goose. Peter takes what is probably the fastest shower of his life and joins them in the living room only two minutes later. Goose rubs herself against his calves and ankles, clearly recognising him from before even without the suit.

“I think she likes you,” MJ says, giving Peter a small smile.

“So MJ, I didn’t know you had a sister!” May says, bringing three cups of tea back out to the living room. Peter sits in the arm chair rather than on the couch and Goose immediately hops into his lap. MJ gives him a look that Peter is pretty sure says this action on the part of her cat-thing has fully removed any lingering doubts she had about his secret identity.

“Yeah, she’s seventeen years older than me though,” MJ says. “Our mom travels for work a lot so she spends a lot of time with me, even though she officially lives with her girlfriend in the lower east side.”

“She said your mom is out of town right now, right?” May asks.

MJ nods. “Monica will have called her though, so I imagine she’ll be back soon.”

May doesn’t ask about their dad, or dads, since it does seem a little more likely they’d be half-sisters.

“You’re welcome to stay with us as long as you need,” May says. “And I know you said you wanted to stay here so you didn’t have to miss school, but if you don’t feel like going tomorrow, that is totally okay.”

“Thank you,” MJ says, giving May one of her small smiles.

“Oh! I’m going to go see if we have anything you can borrow for clothes,” May announces, and then disappears back into her room.

MJ and Peter sit in silence for a second and Peter is really not sure where to start a conversation here.

“I should go make up the other bunk,” he realises. MJ nods slowly and accepts Goose back when Peter hands her over. Peter also takes advantage of the time alone in his room to clean everything as much as he can. The remains of one of Ned’s Lego Star Wars figurines is in the middle of the floor and he removes it to a shelf, webbing it quickly in place when it starts to teeter wildly.

It isn’t that making the top bunk of a bunkbed up is difficult under normal circumstances – just awkward – but it is so very much easier when one can simply stick to the ceiling above it. Which is, of course, when May finds him.

“Peter!” she hisses in a low enough whisper MJ probably can’t hear her from the living room. “Does she know?”

He finishes tucking the stupid square sheet around the mattress and retreats to floor level to get the top sheet and the quilt.

“I mean – I  _ think  _ so?” he whispers back. “But I haven’t told her yet. I was going to, after school today, and then…”

May nods. “And you guys aren’t dating, right? So I don’t need to worry about—”

She gestures at the bunk beds suggestively. Peter is pretty sure he’s going to melt into the floor.

“No!” he says, and as soon as he says it, it kind of makes him sad. But May looks relieved and not like she’s going to insist on doing something silly like making someone sleep on the couch when there are three separate beds in the apartment.

May brings the stack of clothes she’s holding out to the living room and offers them to MJ with the comment that she’s not obligated to wear any of them, but they should be a reasonable stop over until they have time to go shopping. MJ thanks her and heads to Peter’s room to try and find some place to store them and her school bag and her cat-thing.

“What does your aunt do for work?” MJ asks, setting the clothes on the end of the top bunk.

“She’s an organiser at a foundation that helps rehome people after disasters,” Peter says. “She started back in 2012. They’re an NGO but she works a lot with the Department of Damage Control people.”

MJ nods in understanding and then leaves to take a shower. Unlike Peter, she was not entirely covered in soot and smoke. They’re both quiet when she returns and climbs up into the top bunk, Goose hot on her heels. Peter can hear the cat-thing purring loud enough to make Mr Stark’s jet propulsors jealous.

When it’s late enough that MJ could’ve reasonably fallen asleep, though he can’t hear her breathing either way over Goose, he says, “I’m Spider-Man.”

“I know,” MJ says.

“I know,” Peter echoes. “I just – I was going to tell you after school today, and then…Um, how long have you known?”

“Peter, I was sitting next to you in that lockdown when the spider bit you,” MJ says. “That’s when it happened right? When all those death bots were flying over the city while we were on that field trip and we got locked in the basement of the Natural History Museum?”

Peter blinks in the darkness at the slats under the bed. He is an idiot.

“I didn’t realise you were there,” he says.

“I’m pretty sure you didn’t know I existed,” MJ replies. It doesn’t sound judgemental at all, more matter of fact, but it makes Peter’s stomach ache.

They lapse into silence again and this time it’s Peter who’s almost asleep when MJ speaks.

“I’m not, um, I’m not a hundred percent human,” she says.

“I know,” Peter just barely breathes. If he’d had doubts, they were crushed by Goose. “That, um, that project you did last week about your heritage, that was all true, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah,” MJ agrees.

“And Fiona’s an alien too, right?”

“Yeah,” MJ says.

Peter has about a thousand million questions, but he doesn’t even know where to start.

“Your mom is out of town by being off-planet, isn’t she,” he finally guesses.

“Yup,” MJ says.

“What about your, um, your dad?”

“I don’t have one,” MJ says. Peter frowns at the bottom of the bunk and like she can see him, she adds, “Literally. There’s a Skrull technology that makes it possible for people with the same chromosomal structure to create a child that is genetically both of theirs. The mom Monica and I share is fully human, and my other mom is kind of half Kree, it’s complicated and weird and they haven’t actually told me the full story or anything, but…”

“Do the Kree have a different blood colour?” Peter asks, suddenly putting some pieces together.

“Blue,” MJ says.

“And your blood is blue,” he guesses.

“Yeah,” MJ says.

Peter has been bitten by a radioactive spider, he’s joined the Avengers on a temporary basis, he usually transports himself by swinging on spiderwebs he made himself, and this is hands down the coolest thing he’s ever encountered.

“So, um, what is Goose? Because I know she’s not a cat.”

“She’s a flerken,” MJ says.

“This is so cool,” Peter can’t help but say. MJ snorts. “So you’ve, like, been to space.”

“Not since I was five,” MJ says. “There was a Kree attack on our city and so my mom and Fiona’s dad sent me and Monica and Fiona and our mom to earth where it was safer.”

“Dude,” Peter says, almost whistling it under his breath. He doesn’t mean to, but at least it gets MJ to snort-laugh just a little. “So is that why you moved to New York? Because of Project Insight in Washington?”

“Yeah,” MJ says.

“So do you, like, have superpowers?” Peter asks.

“Not like you. Not like my mom,” she replies. There’s a beat of silence. “Also, you’re the only person who knows, so you need to keep it quiet because if people find out, that’s when Monica and Mom panic and change our names and move us to different states.”

It hasn’t even occurred to him that Michelle Jones is not MJ’s birthname.

“Change your names?” he asks. “But then how were you MJ?”

“My middle name starts with a J too,” MJ say. “But seriously, you can’t tell people.”

“Right, you got it,” Peter promises and he thinks he can hear MJ smile in relief. Awkwardly, he chews on the inside of his lip. “There’s just one tiny, little, insignificant problem?”

* * *

They ambush Ned before he can walk into the main Midtown building.

Between MJ’s above-human strength and Peter’s being Peter, he goes down quick and watches them with unnervingly exhilarated wide eyes while they manhandle him into an outbuilding.

“You can’t tell anyone,” MJ says when they’ve let go of him. “About me.”

“I haven’t told anyone about Peter,” Ned says. “Your secret intergalactic heritage is safe with me.”

As far as Peter knows, MJ has said nothing about it being intergalactic. She gives Ned a flat look and he gulps.

“But, also, like, shouldn’t you be our astronomy expert on the decathlon team?” he asks.

“Just because I was born there doesn’t mean I know anything about it,” MJ says.

“Right! Sorry!” Ned says, and then proceeds to spend the rest of the day staring at MJ out of the corner of his eye whenever he thinks he can get away with it. The one time Peter bothers to call him on it – which doesn’t have to be often because everyone’s sort of staring at MJ today since her building burnt down the day before – Ned just turns to look at him, mouths “dude” and goes right back to staring.

Peter doesn’t go straight to patrol after practice. Instead, he and MJ take the subway together back to his apartment. They’re having a completely normal conversation, something about Betty and Cindy and Ned and an unfolding, unexpected love triangle therein, and are halfway down the hall to Peter and May’s apartment when all of the hairs on his neck stand up.

“There’s something here,” he whispers.

MJ nods, worried, and leans back into the shadows while Peter pulls his mask on. It’ll have to be enough for now.

He bursts into the apartment, webs at the ready, and freezes in place.

May is serving coffee to two women he doesn’t recognise. One of them is black and might be May’s age. The other is white and blonde and looks thirty at the outside. What gives him the most reason to pause, however, is that there’s a healing cut on the blonde woman’s eyebrow.

The scab is blue.

May turns to look at him and sees his mask and gives him a wide-eyed what-the-fuck stare and so he apologises, backs out of the apartment, and shuts the door. He whips the mask off and stuffs it back into his bag and then turns to find MJ.

“I think – I think your moms are here,” he says.

MJ’s jaw drops and she bursts into the apartment past him. From the ensuing excited noises, he assumes he was correct. He steps inside as well. MJ is hugging both of them at once and they each have a tight arm wrapped around her shoulders, holding her close.

MJ’s blonde mom gives him a once over when he comes back into the apartment and cocks an eyebrow at him.

“That mask actually fool people, kid?” she asks.

“I – I have a suit, too,” Peter promises.

“Peter, I’m sure you know about MJ’s moms?” May says, by way of introduction. “Maria and Carol?”

“Nice to meet you,” Peter says, awkwardly lifting a hand.

“We hear you saved our cat,” Carol says, finally letting go of MJ and her wife so she can pull both of them down to the sofa and sit with MJ squished between them.

“I’m – I’m pretty sure she’s not a cat,” Peter says.

“Also, she’s not  _ our  _ not-cat,” Maria mutters. “She’s  _ your  _ tentacle creature.”

“Look, they’re better than guard dogs, and Goose has a taste for full-Kree flesh,” Carol says.

“What?” May breathes.

“Anyone looking for us tries to start things with our girls, and Goose will take care of them,” Carol continues.

May nods, a bit like she’s going to implode.

Peter is pretty sure it’s not a good sign that Carol is talking casually about aliens because MJ looks worried. It’s not like people on Earth don’t know about space aliens these days, what with Thor and then the Chitauri, and then the dark elves in London a year later, but as far as people know, humanoid aliens aren’t secretly living among them.

“Thank you so much for taking care of her,” Maria says to May. “Monica said she wanted to take her back to Manhattan but that you guys were kind enough to take her in for the night.”

“For the night?” MJ, May, and Peter repeat.

There’s a feeling in Peter’s chest, tightening like some kind of…

Oh. Panic. It’s panic.

“You know, we’ve been working towards better stability, and ever since Hala fell, it’s actually been an attainable goal,” Carol says. She smiles at MJ. “We were wondering if maybe you wanted to come home.”

MJ’s whole face goes slack and Peter can’t begin to imagine what’s going through her head.

“But I haven’t been there since I was five,” MJ says finally in a very small voice that just about breaks Peter’s heart.

“We know,” Maria says and Peter wonders when she moved back to space. It can’t have been that long ago. “But we could all be together, you know?”

He’s pretty sure he imagines it when MJ glances at him, and it’s definitely wishful thinking to imagine that maybe it’s because she doesn’t want to leave Midtown maybe because of him.

“Or you could stay!” Peter hears himself say. Every woman in the room turns to stare at him, including Goose who has oozed languidly from Peter’s bedroom and is now stalking the back of the couch.

“Not really,” Carol says, although she seems amused by his attempt. Amused in a good-natured way. “I’ve got a pretty damn substantial gap in my résumé.”

“You’re also legally dead,” Maria reminds her.

“There is that,” Carol says.

Peter’s mind whirls, looking for possibilities, and he’s definitely not imagining it this time when MJ looks at him.

“You know, um, Earth is still really, really new at dealing with space alien stuff,” he says.

“Painfully aware, kid,” Carol says.

“But, um, I mean, our only Avenger with any space knowledge is Thor and he doesn’t actually live here. He’s only here part time!” Peter continues.

“Your only what?” Carol asks.

“The collection of superheroes here on Earth, I know I told you about them,” Maria says, frowning at her over the top of MJ’s head.

“You did, but you didn’t tell me what they’re called,” Carol says. She snorts. “Fury owes me at least fifty bucks.”

Peter has no idea what she’s talking about but he doesn’t ask. It’s not relevant.

“Fury put the team together back forever ago,” he says instead. “And well, there was sort of this whole thing, and it’s not really a team anymore? But, like, there’s no one who can deal with alien stuff and MJ said  _ you  _ have superpowers, so like, maybe, if you wanted, you could stay and…do…that?”

MJ’s eyes light up and Peter’s definitely not imagining that it looks like hope.

“You said that things are nearly stable,” MJ reminds her. “Things are not stable here, like, at all.”

Carol looks from MJ to Maria for a second and then looks to Peter.

“Do you have Fury’s phone number?” she asks.

Peter fumbles his phone out to offer it up and May’s jaw drops.

“Peter! Why do you have Nick Fury’s phone number?” she demands.

Peter attempts to answer but comes up with nothing that won’t get either him, Mr Stark, Captain Rogers, or even Ms Romanoff in trouble.

Carol seems amused by this and takes his phone. She takes her call out on the fire escape and May and Maria make small talk while Peter and MJ stare at the window Carol went through with undivided attention.

Finally, she comes back inside and looks mildly annoyed.

“He wants me to try and put the Avengers back together as my first move,” she says. She hands Peter his phone back. “You seem to know much, young Skywalker, got any ideas for me?”

Peter isn’t sure if he’s more surprised by the question or the Star Wars reference.

“Light the Sokovia Accords on fire?” MJ suggests. Carol looks pensive and MJ chews on her lip. “Does – does this mean we’re staying?”

“I think it might,” Carol agrees, and MJ is up off the couch, hugging her, within seconds.

“We’re going to spend some time with Monica and Fiona,” Maria says when MJ has finally let go of Carol. “Stay there at least for a few days while we sort out what we’re doing. Do you want to come with us?”

MJ looks between them and then glances at Peter and May.

“I kind of have school,” she says, tucking her hair behind her ear.

“Nerd,” Carol replies, affectionately. “Is that okay with you, May?”

“Absolutely,” May says. Maria starts to say something else and May hastens to add, “And they’re not dating, so we don’t have to worry about – y’know – teenager things.”

Peter’s entire body goes numb with embarrassment and from the wide-eyed look MJ is now wearing, he’s guessing hers did too.

“Perfect,” Maria says, and she’s clearly trying not to laugh at either Peter or MJ. She clears her throat and adopts a perfectly straight face. “If that changes, let us know.”

“Guaranteed,” May says, and all three adults ignore Peter and MJ’s splutters of protest and how-could-yous.

“Can we buy you both dinner?” Carol asks.

May agrees and the five of them go out to eat at the Indian restaurant down the street. Restaurants that serve identifiable food is apparently one of the things one grows to miss living in space.

Carol and Maria also take MJ for a few hours after they eat, and for the entire time she’s away, Peter paces the apartment like a fool, certain that despite what they’ve said, Carol and Maria have just whisked MJ away back to space. When she returns – because she returns – it’s with a suitcase and a few shopping bags of new clothes.

May also insists on Peter’s bedroom door staying open at night, ostensibly so that Goose can get out and use the toilet since Goose reportedly uses people toilets. Peter doesn’t think any supervisory plans she has are going to work though because May herself sleeps with her door shut.

“Thank you,” MJ says when they’re tucked away in Peter’s room. “I couldn’t think of a reason for them to stay.”

“I’m glad I could help!” Peter says. He’s sitting on his bed and MJ is cross-legged on his desk chair and their knees are almost touching and Peter’s doing his best not to think about that. “Although I think I just made your mom my boss.”

MJ snorts. “And be careful, she was in the Air Force, she’ll have you running drills.”

Peter hadn’t been part of the Avengers when Captain Rogers was still in charge, but he’s pretty sure that was already something they did.

“But seriously, thank you,” MJ says, and she leans forward to kiss him on the cheek.

Peter’s pretty sure that every inch of his body is blushing.

“It was mostly just selfish because I didn’t want you to leave,” he mumbles.

MJ stares at him for a second, and then, looking nervous the entire time, she leans forward and kisses him again, but this time on the mouth.

Peter stops breathing.

“Sorry!” she says, leaning away. She is horrified. “I thought that was – was that weird? I’m so sorry, I, um, I didn’t—”

Peter ignores her babbling apologies in favour of kissing her again. This time, he remembers to breathe and MJ puts her arms around him. He is pretty sure he would be content to let MJ hold him until he dies.

Unfortunately, when he wraps his arms around her, just trying to get a little bit closer, she falls off the desk chair and it goes rolling towards the door and makes a horrible clattering sound.

“What was that?” May calls, although she doesn’t leave her room or come in and see them making out.

“Sorry, Aunt May!” Peter calls back. He’s trying not to laugh but it’s very difficult since MJ’s face is buried in the junction between his neck and shoulder and she’s laughing so hard she’s shaking and Peter just wants to kiss her again.

He does, and MJ smiles at him whenever they have to come up for air.

* * *

That was Tuesday and they get caught by Friday and MJ gets relocated to Betty’s guest room, but Peter can’t say he minds too much. Betty’s guest room has fire escape access and perhaps more of Spider-Man’s patrols take him to her street and perhaps he spends a bit too much time out of his patrols sitting on that fire escape making out with his girlfriend, but oh well.

Carol becomes known as Captain Marvel, stages a takeover of the Avengers while heartily endorsed by Fury, drags Captain Rogers, Ms Romanoff, and Mr Wilson out of their crusade against Hydra and forces everyone to work together. Peter’s grateful for it when, a few months later, the Hulk returns to Earth to tell them Thanos is coming, because when they all work as a team and have Carol on their side, Thanos doesn’t have a chance.

And Peter decides he’ll take any amount of teasing from his decathlon teammates for dating their captain, or from the rest of the Avengers for dating the boss’s daughter, because it means MJ’s still around and not off in space somewhere. And when it boils down to it, he’s pretty sure that’s all that matters. 

**Author's Note:**

> Coming Soon (Watch this Space) - an Endgame Fixit that:  
> \- Is technically canon compliant! (they didn't show us what happened in between Steve going to the past and turning up on that bench, therefore anything goes!) and features:  
> \- Spider-Son and Iron Dad! Now with 0% Fridged Aunt May!  
> \- Polyamorous semi-mortal genetically enhanced supersoldiers  
> \- Three generations of Avengers getting to have lives and enjoy them all at once!  
> \- And more! Subscribe to be the first to know when this fic is available near you! 
> 
> You can also come cry with me on [tumblr](http://hmslusitania.tumblr.com) where I spend a lot of time being upset by semi-mortal supersoldiers, both from Marvel and elsewhere.


End file.
